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Goludev the bell lover
I have never been able to really understand the meaning of the word ‘praying’, or maybe I should say ‘the act of praying’. One prays to god – at least according to my catholic upbringing – but since I can’t imagine anything when hearing or reading the word ‘god’, praying to god doesn’t make sense…
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Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari
Popular belief or the folklore of faith is, in general, what religion means to the common man. It is its most widespread manifestation, not only in Catholicism, but in other religions as well. There’s a lot of suffering in the world and people are often subjected to great stress, either self imposed, or by their…
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Treasure-house Venice
One of the nice things of the Italian pavilion at the 2011 Biennale in Venice was the continuity one experienced when stepping out of the exhibition venue into the different nooks and corners of this always enchanting city. Both inside and outside one felt surrounded by the same mixture of folkloric frivolity and renaissance seriousness.…
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The art is not our thing
Art critic and politician Vittorio Sgarbi was chosen as curator of the Italian pavilion at the 54th Biennale in Venice (2011). Since he is known not to like modern art and even less its organizational “mafia”, his nomination was rather controversial. He decided not to select the works for the exhibition himself but to ask…
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Art is my thing
The experience of art in all its manifestations (literature, music, visual arts) is occupying a privileged place in my mental and intellectual life. I could say: in my spiritual life, but I always hesitate using that word since it has these strong religious connotations I’d like to avoid. With acknowledgement and approval I quote what…
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Taking a break
We are here in the Swiss Alps at an altitude of 2000 meters on a trek around the Muverans and I am standing at the exact spot from where I took last week’s picture of landscape with horseman. While that photo clearly was a landscape, I wouldn’t call this one a landscape with goats, the…
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Landscape with horseman
As we noted in last week’s post, a picture of a beautiful landscape normally doesn’t create the emotion that the viewer experienced when he looked at it in reality and which caused him decide to take the picture. What is it then that makes a photo of a landscape potentially interesting? I don’t know if…
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Pure landscapes
Pure landscapes Standing in the middle of a beautiful landscape can be a profound experience. The wide vistas allow us to feel the immensity of space, and the sense of the earth upon which we live. This sensation is intensified also by the quality of the sounds we hear; sounds of animals or human beings…
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The hotel room
The “welcome” poster in last week’s photo wouldn’t have looked unbecoming here either. I once spent a night in this room and I do remember it. I had reached Haldwani station in the middle of the night and found the town immersed in complete darkness due to a power cut. With difficulty I found somebody…
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The waiting room
The waiting room In spite of the wide open iron grid doors, the “welcome” poster on the wall doesn’t look like an altogether superfluous encouragement for possible visitors stepping over the threshold of this waiting room. The contrast between place and poster must have struck me as strangely funny when I passed here on the…
καιρός remembered
… the right moment, position chosen, shoot …
καιρός remembered 